The Blaze Copy Editor | 2025 WI Student Journalist of the Year
Web and Social Media
Being the social media manager for the Blaze has shown me just how much our website and our socials go hand-in-hand. Most of what we post to TikTok and Instagram gets added to our website and vice versa. With pen and paper slowly becoming a thing of the past, I took my creative abilities online to try and help create more traffic. Over the past two years, I've grown to have more of an understanding of what engages people and makes them want to interact with us.
Below is the layout of our website. Mrs. Corbett and I meet once monthly to discuss what we want to add or take away from it. We talk about what is most relevant to our student body and our community, and we take things from there. Very rarely do we remove anything from the website, but we are always trying to add more to keep people coming back.
We included an area for people to donate as they so choose. My goal for this new year is to promote it more.
Here is where people can read our feature stories.
For our polling section, I work very closely with our design editor to come up with questions regarding the now.
Here is where people can view Photo of the Week.
We put up important information and updates, many of which regard the yearbook itself.
New to our site this year, Mrs. Corbett and I added a "trending" column for people to keep up with what's new.
We add our personality profiles to our website once the yearbook is completed so they have a digital copy of our work.
We've even added a section for the weekly weather forecast.
We like to also keep our graduating seniors in the loop. Most of the announcements we make are geared towards them.
Instagram - Photo of the Week Posts
Weekly, our photo editor picks a photo she thinks is above all the others. We then take this picture and post it with its caption to our Instagram and website. We do this as a way to encourage our photographers to keep reaching beyond "good" and to go for "better." As a staff, we work hard to make sure everyone feels involved and valued. Photo of the Week is just one of the ways we utilize inclusion.
“It’s honestly all about trust,” Chipulli said. “Like you can do the skills a thousand times. If you’re thinking about it in your head that it’s going bad, it’s gonna go bad. So I have to picture it perfectly. It’s a really nice environment. I love doing it. I don’t think I would never not do it.” photo by Lizzett Barrera
“My motivation was to not let my team down and just trying to get the ball back,” Jaramillo said. “After winning the game I felt proud of me and my team.” photo by Juliana Mora
“I have always tried being positive and spreading joy, but this title has given me a better chance to spread that to more people,” Lallo said. photo by Andrea Lepley
“It’s honestly all about trust,” Chipulli said. “Like you can do the skills a thousand times. If you’re thinking about it in your head that it’s going bad, it’s gonna go bad. So I have to picture it perfectly. It’s a really nice environment. I love doing it. I don’t think I would never not do it.” photo by Lizzett Barrera
On our Instagram, I post our photo of the week and the caption. Normally, these are the posts that get the most likes, comments and reposts because students get so excited to see themselves in the pictures.
TikTok
On our TikTok, things are a lot more easy-going. I try to use our TikTok account to show the behind the scenes of how fun yearbook can be and that we're more than just the pictures and stories they see in their book. While posting fun videos, I also post informational ones such as where students can buy their books and if prices are going up soon. I use these methods to make our TikTok's more relatable and fun to watch.
To showcase our KEMPA All-American award, we made a TikTok with a trending sound. This video got 1,948 views and 157 likes.
For our new and old followers to be able to reconnect with our staff, we posted this video about our current obsessions. We included our names so our viewers could put a face to our names. This video got 1,330 views and 67 likes.
During a work night, our Editor-in-Chief wanted to give our followers a tour of our newsroom. This video got 2,024 views and 73 likes.
Candy salads were trending at the time of this post and we wanted to hop on the bandwagon. This video got 5,443 views and 337 likes. It is still our most popular video to date.
When we were running low on yearbooks available for preorder, we made a TikTok to make sure everyone was aware of how low our stock was getting. This video got 2,082 views and 86 likes.
Following another trend, we made this video packed full of transitions to help keep our viewers engaged and entertained. This video got 1,243 views and 54 likes.